Soumitra Chatterjee in his career of over fifty years, was one of the busiest artistes, among those who came into the limelight in India.  He was an actor, a director, a playwright, a writer and a poet.

Acting was his foremost passion. He was to Satyajit Ray what renowned actor Toshiro Mifune was to Akira Kurosawa and Marcello Mastroianni was to Federico Fellini. Soumitra acted in fourteen of Ray's films, and Ray had high expectations from him.

In "Apur Sansar",  Soumitra played a young man who loved literature. He gave a candid performance in the film. In "Charulata",  he was the devoted lover, and in "Abhijan" he played a strong-headed taxi driver.

 In Ajay Kar's "Saat Paanke Bandha" he played a  sensitive man with an unassailable sense of self-respect, caught in the trials of conjugal life, and in Saroj De's "Kony", he was a spirited swimming instructor, encouraging a girl not to give up.

To Soumitra, acting was a 'quest for details'. In Amitava Nag's book on Soumitra, the writer asked him about his views on death. His answer was, "The quest continues".